Colin Dayan’s Argument (absoluteness made the master something other than human as well)

Colin Dayan’s argument is that being a master comes with its sacrifices. A master with all the power and dominance makes a master powerful, but also makes the master a something not of human, but a monster. In Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, shows what a master who is absolute can become. Douglass described his master as “a cruel man” and mentions that his master was a long time slave owner. In other words Douglass believed that owning slaves had made his master cruel. Douglass further describes how inhumane his master is by explaining the emotions his master shows when whipping a slave. He states that his master took “great pleasure in whipping a slave”. His master actually enjoys hurting his slaves to the point where his slaves are on the edge of dying. Douglass supports that fact by stating that the louder the salve screamed the harder his master would whip and that the more the slave bleed the more his master whipped the slave. In addition he stated that the only reason his master stopped whipping was because he became tired. In other words, the master would have kept whipping the slave no matter how much they bleed and screamed. The master would have gone as far as killing his slave. This whole scene Douglass describes shows the consequences of becoming a slave holder. It makes a person become a cruel, power hungry monster. In addition to Douglass’s passage, in the Dred Scott Decision, it shows a different way absoluteness changes a person to something other than human. In this case, the Judges show a god complex. They believe they get to decide who has rights and who don’t have rights.  In the article they stated that Africans were an enslaved race and that they were the inferior class to the whites. They decided that Africans had no rights or privileges as whites do regard less if they are free or not because the Africans will always be subjected to serve the whites. This belief of stripping ones race’s freedom and rights makes them a tyrant with a god complex.